DIMIC

We only went to buy one statue from a fellow (now ex-) collector who lives quite nearby. And we came home with three… This is one of those times I have to confirm to myself that I’m, or we for that matter, are as mad as a hatter!
This is the oldest of the three we bought; Street Fighter Vega exclusive from Pop Culture Shock.

I remember when we saw Vega about three years ago or so. I also remember saying that we could never ever spend that much money on a single statue… And look at us now. We didn’t pay the going rate for these three (which I’m extremely happy about) but buying three of these statues at the same time without a Flex Pay option, well, it hurt. A lot.
Even so, Vega wasn’t the statue we were going to buy. That one was the Cammy Exclusive. Don’t worry, she’s next in line. But he was on my wanted list… I just didn’t want to buy him without having to buy M. Bison as well. Even if he also had the Bison exclusive. And we couldn’t just start with another series right? Rrrrright.

A small biography

Vega, known as Balrog in Japan, was born to a privileged noble family. For reasons undisclosed, their status dwindled, causing Vega’s mother to remarry for financial security.[citation needed] As he matured, Vega studied bullfighting, a cultural tradition. Afterward, he went to Japan and learned ninjutsu, a style he believed meshed well with his natural grace and agility. Combining bullfighting with ninjutsu, Vega went into an underground cage fighting circuit, and quickly became one of the best. His ugly stepfather murdered his beautiful mother because he felt she did not respect him, and Vega killed him in return.[citation needed] The incident warped his mind, and he developed a dual personality: honorable nobleman by day, sadistic murderer by night. It was this incident that triggered Vega’s obession with beauty as a wonderful trait, as well as his belief that ugliness is something evil that should be purged.

He first appeared as a boss character in Street Fighter II. He is a memorable character, not only for his obsession with beauty, but also for the claw he wields and his unique fighting style.
Vega uses his own fighting style of which is a blend of Spanish Ninjutsu and Bullfighting.

source:Street Fighter Wiki

The Statue
This statue was the third one made in the Pop Culture Shock’s Street Fighter line and was released in November 2008 if my sources are correct. Ow, I just love saying ‘my sources’.  The thing I liked about this statue was mainly the switchable head/hand. But now that I have him, I must admit that he’s just really wonderful in person even though it’s a statue made in the early days of Pop Culture Shock. Why do I say that? Well, the finish is a bit rough here and there and the seams are more visible than on one of their newer statues. I like seeing the progress in a company’s statue line. Makes me believe more in said company.
The thing I also like about Pop Culture Shock is that they use the same base for all their mixed media statues (see Felicia and Raptor).

Even though it’s an older statue, he’s one of our favorites from this line. We were a bit skeptic at first but we absolutely adore him now. His body is very nicely sculpted and I’m just crazy about his flowing hair. Call me a sucker but I always found Vega one of the more attractive from the Street Fighter series. He’s pretty. Completely wacked up, but pretty nonetheless.
And I’m glad to say that this presentation of him is the best one out there. I’ve only found some old figures made by Hasbro and they’re freaking ugly. The ones made by Sota Toys aren’t that much better either. But this one… Oh, I like. The cloth used on him look amazing and the wires in his shawl-thingie are easy to adjust.
I even like his unmasked head, the thing I was most skeptical of because of the retail pictures. Just like it was with Felicia, his official pictures aren’t that flattering. He looks totally different. The only thing that looks a lot better on the prototype pictures are his eyes. Mine are unpainted, the white of the eyes that is. But it doesn’t bother me that much. It really looks good in person and I hope I captured it even a tiny bit in my pictures.

There were a lot of problems with this statue and I’m not even talking about the googly eyes problems. One of the biggest troubles were breakages resulted by it’s poor packaging. Mainly the claws, ponytails and feet were reported broken a lot. Another problem was that a lot of them lean forward or sidewards actually. I’m so glad that we had the chance to inspect this statue before we bought it and I’m happy to say that we don’t have any of the mentioned problems or any other. Oh, and did I mention that we’ve got number 2? Yes, the exact same number as our Felicia statue. Talk about coincidence.

One thing I need to mention that even though this is the exclusive version, there’s even a more exclusive version around. CornerStoreComics.com had a green, 50 pieces worldwide, limited edition. Needless to say that these sold out extremely fast. This green version also came with a different unmasked head. I don’t really like that version. I prefer the colors and the head of this version. But still, it would be a nice piece to have. Pretty limited, I like that. There’s one major downside with this version however. Remember those problems I mentioned before? Well, almost all of these green statues had at least one of these problems. You can find the pictures of this version using this link.

Conclusion
It’s a bit hard to start collecting this Street Fighter line in it totality since practical all of them are hard to find nowadays and very, very expensive. This one is no exception. But if you find this beaut for a reasonable price, I’m telling you; don’t hesitate! You won’t regret it. This is the best Vega representation out there and one of the best in this line. I certainly don’t regret buying him. My sole regret is that I can’t display him for a while.

Item reviewed: Street Fighter Vega Ex
Type: mixed media (resin with cloth)
Manufacturer: Pop Culture Shock
Variations: regular edition (without the switchable portrait and hand) and a CornerStoreComics.com exclusive
Rarity: Quite hard to find. Getting pretty pricey as well. 50 (green ex), 200 (ex) and 400 (reg) made worldwide